oh the zoo, what a place to be

I've always been a huge fan of the zoo. I love seeing the animals, I get really giddy and start acting like an excited little kid. And when I finally see the animals I spend as much time as possible just staring at them. After the first visit to the zoo I was still pretty possitive about them, although I hadn't realize just how many people were actually against them (and not just told to be for those 3 hours). There were many things about the zoo that had upset me or that had crossed my mind but they had never detered me from going and enjoying myself. After the second visit on the other hand I started to have a few more problems with it. I had always watched kids come up to the animals and their excitment always made me smile, but sitting there and recording what they were saying was quite different. The kids all seemed to view the animals as objects that were purely there for their entertainment, whether that take 4 seconds or 4 minutes. I stared to realize that many of the people who went to the zoo (kids and adults alike) didn't apreciate or really respect the animals, that the zoo wasn't a learning tool unless the learning was enforced. What really upset me was standing infront of the Sun Bear exhibit. One of the Sun Bears has a missing jaw, his tongue is always sticking out because of this and for some reason his face is all scrunched up. There is absolutely no information around telling you why he looks the way he does so people walking by just make comments about how ugly or stupid he looks. I know the bears have no idea what people are saying, but it still upset me becuase if one of the zoo's purposes is to educate then the least they can do is educate people about the specific animals they have. I even tried finding something on the website and couldn't find a thing.





ARF.